Thursday Bolts – 12.6.12

Beckley Mason for the NY Times on OKC’s spacing: “One of the underrated advantages of good spacing is that the options for the player with the ball become clearer. It’s easier to see the floor and quickly discern the right read. The Thunder’s big men, in particular, have improved in this regard. When they aren’t setting high ball screens, Oklahoma City positions them extremely low along the baseline to make help defense on Durant or Russell Westbrook more difficult and make the Thunder playmakers’ decisions easier when the help does come.”

KD to Sam Amick of USA Today: “Larry Bird is a guy I like watching,” Durant said with a smile. “I watch film on him all the time. I like his approach to the game when he was playing. When I first started playing the game, my Godfather Taras Brown – who taught me how to play – he always was a Larry Bird guy, always used to look up his stats.”

Berry Tramel compares Joe Johnson and James Harden: “Johnson became a free agent in 2005 and decided to play the market. He wanted a bigger role. Johnson ended up getting a five-year, $70-million contract from the Atlanta Hawks, and in 2010 Johnson signed a six-year, $119-million contract with Atlanta, which last summer traded him to the Nets. Harden, you know all about. So Johnson in 2005 was in very much the same situation Harden was in this past off-season. How has it worked for Johnson? Well, he’s had a great career. The big contract in 2010. Six straight all-star appearances. He was the main man on some good Atlanta teams. But not great teams. The Hawks went 26-56 and 30-52 in Johnson’s first two seasons, then became a perennial playoff team. Lost in the first round in 2008 and 2012; lost in the East semifinals in 2009, 2010 and 2011.”

Chuck Klosterman of Grantland on Popovich and entertainment: “Popovich is a beloved, admired coach who appears actively unconcerned with the entertainment requirements of basketball (which is how most serious fans would insist they want him to behave). He’s exclusively concerned with real competition over the long term, particularly in the month of June; everything else is a distraction. Stern’s essential rebuttal is that pro basketball only exists because pro basketball is fun to watch (and if you ignore its entertainment import, the rest of this will all disappear). He’s concerned with short-term competition on a night-to-night basis, which translates into an entertaining product overall.”

The Hornets going with Pelicans honestly makes me a little jealous. Yeah it’s a dumb nickname now. But it’s not hard for me to picture 25 years from now when that’s classic team name. “Thunder” won’t ever be that.

OKC appears to have control of the Northwest, but don’t count out the Nuggets, per John Hollinger of ESPN.com: “What’s more, the opposition is rough, regardless of locale. The Nuggets have faced the eighth-hardest schedule strength by win-loss record (we rate it after subtracting a team’s own wins and losses, although for a 9-9 team like Denver this has virtually no impact). Their next three opponents all are playoff teams, and they still play Memphis twice, San Antonio and both L.A. teams this month. So we have to grade them on a curve. If Denver gets to the 32-game mark and still is at .500, that should be considered a pretty positive accomplishment — the Nuggets would be fairly certain to make the playoffs from there, with 31 of the final 50 games at home and more pliable opposition to boot.”

Darnell Mayberry gives you a tour of the Barclays Center: “The coolest feature on the main concourse is undoubtedly the standing room only section, which is just beyond the main entrance and overlooks the court from an end zone. It’s a similar set up to the SRO platforms at Cowboys Stadium and other venues. Unfortunately for fans, when I walked by there was a rope keeping everyone back about 20 feet from where the seats started. There looked to be some sort of broadcast table beyond the rope. Not sure if the rope was removed at any point during the evening, but if it wasn’t it blocked viewers’ ability to see most of the arena and court.”

Via Tzvi Twersky of SLAM, Jordan brand designer Tinker Hatfield with a great quote on Westbrook: “[Westbrook] is polarizing in a lot of ways, and we like that. He’s super-athletic, and he’s a risk-taker as a player. That’s why Michael likes him a lot; he kind of reminds him of himself. He’s got a ways to go to measure up to Michael, as any young player would, but we’re very excited about this guy. He’s willing to play basketball in the NBA in this shoe before anybody else. That shows some chutzpah (laughs).”

Henry Abbott of ESPN.com on Hack-a-Howard: “Much of the NBA is discussing Dwight Howard’s inability to hit free throws, and the tactical opportunity that creates for Laker opponents to foul Howard early and often. Even if Howard is nowhere near the action, if an opponent grabs him, it is Howard who must step the free throw line, and he’ll bring his career 58 percent free-throw shooting average with him. Before Wednesday evening’s games, Howard had shot a league-leading 203 free throws on the season, of which he has made just 95. The Thunder’s Kevin Durant was second but a far cry behind, having attempted just 165 (although Durant has made 149).”

Pace is complicated and may or may not be that important but I find it a bit surprising that the Thunder are barely above average on pace. Faster pace teams are a bit harder for them to beat so far this season but it was not an issue last season.

Heat are playing faster so far this season and are undefeated against fast paced teams so far. Mediocre against average and slow paced teams.

@justin_mia@EatSleepThunder@S k i p It's like when people say, "Russ is a great off ball defender." That's well and good, but isn't it misleading since he almost NEVER plays off the ball?

I wouldn't mention efficiency if you were talking about passing. I love that his passing has improved. But you said he's top 6 in scoring as if it's a big deal - when the fact of the matter is he's really been a poor scorer this year.

@justin_mia@Keith00@S k i p It just seems that every time I say something good about westbrook, someone has to post about efficiency. I get it. They aren't good. You don't have to say it over and over again.

I honestly think talent wise he wasn't all that different than KD. KD's work ethic (in addition to rediculous physical ability) is what has made him great. As much as you like to think there aren't athletic, fluid 6'9 guys there are. His talent is rare because of his skills that he's developed.

@justin_mia I liked him alot at Kstate and still hope that he gets it together but I don't think it's going to happen. It's funny that last year during the lockout at the exhibition game in OKC he looked like one of the best 5 players on the court with Durant, Lebron, CP3, Melo, Westbrook out there lol.

@#sheem@justin_mia To be fair, the Celtics probably thought he could shoot. His billing coming out of college was scorer with range, but who needs to be reigned in.

And yeah, maybe Doc could have talked some sense into him. But everything about his game screams entitlement and attitude. Non-passer, no trust in teammates, never saw a shot he didn't like, and completely ignores playing defense. I'm definitely reading too much personality into his play but that doesn't sound like someone who would say, "Sure, Dad, working on my game sounds a lot better than making millions of dollars."